Review of NOKAS at BU Hillel

[Dick Rosenberg <drosenberg...>]

I saw the New Orleans Klezmer All Stars at BU Hillel Thursday night.
Unfortunately they didn't have much of an audience, although we were
enthusiastic. There were only 20-30 of us and half of us were local
Klezmer musicians (which seemed to intimidate them more that it should
have, considering how proficient they all are on their various
instruments).

They did about a 2 hour set. My take on what they did is: For what they
do, they are a very good, high energy band, composed of very good
musicians. The key phrase is, "For what they do". I would characterize
their music as "Jazz-Rock based on Klezmer themes", not Klezmer music.
They would often start off with a familiar "lead" and then individual
musicians would solo, based on either the underlying chord changes of
the "lead" they had played, or sometimes a repeating background using
familiar Klezmer chords (D-Cmin for the musicians among you). Often they
would go back to the "lead" in between solos to anchor the piece. I like
Jazz and I like Rock and I was moved by and clapping to their music, but
not in the same way I do to Klezmer music and not in a  way that would
make me want to get up and dance. In some ways it reminded me of what
Andy Statman is doing nowadays, starting from a Klezmer base and then
going in an entirely different direction.

On the way home my accordion player asked me "What did you think of
them?" and my answer was, "Well, I thought their music was great, but I
wouldn't really want to hire them for my kid's Bat Mitzvah". 

What they did at Wesleyan, where they had a hall full of people
seemingly dying to get up and dance rather than listen, I'm sure was
different than what they did at BU, and I suspect that when they do play
a New Orleans Bat Mitzvah they do it differently than when they are in
"jazz" or "rock" mode (as, I understand, do the Klezmatics).

To sum up, I think they are a great band, composed of very talented
people, who play very lively energetic Klezmer-based but not Klezmer
music. Just know that they are what they are, and judge them on that.

Dick Rosenberg